The case of the red robin
by EK
Summary: (one-shot) Kenshin has disappeared without a trace, and sends the -gumi in a frenzy. WHERE is he?!


Hello! This is my one-shot on one of the most used "what if" questions about RK that turns into fanfics. Hope you like my spin on it. ^_^  
  
...................  
  
"Have you seen Kenshin?"  
  
It was the only constant in a day living with Kaoru. Some time during the day, every day, Kaoru was bound to ask the question. Usually it had a solid answer, but Kaoru just liked asking it all the same. Maybe it was just to assure herself of his presence somewhere in her world. Whatever the reason, Kamiya Kaoru was asking it again.  
  
It was a slow, hot, summer day, and Yahiko had just finished sweeping the yard. He was ready to have a nice long drink of cool water from the well...but not before yanking Kaoru's chain first. He readied his gravest expression and seriously faced Kaoru.  
  
"Hmmm...he mentioned something about going back to Kyoto. He was going to visit Hiko, visit Tomoe's tomb again." He adds mysteriously, "Maybe he's gone looking for another girl....he didn't say if he will ever be back...."  
  
Kaoru turns deathly pale.  
  
"Did he...did he...leave a message for me?"  
  
Yahiko shakes his head. "No..I saw him leave with a large bundle...and his sakabatou..."  
  
Kaoru suddenly grabs him by the shoulders and holds him tightly. "Which way did he go?"  
  
"I think he went thataway," and he points toward the center of the city.  
  
Kaoru quickly drops him and runs to town.  
  
Yahiko soon recovers his shaken senses and tries to shout after her, "Just kidding, Kaoru! He went to market!" But he knows it's useless. He walks on toward the well, laughing at the panic in his master's face.  
  
Kaoru first runs helter-skelter to the Akabeko. She opens the door of the restaurant, and customers stare at her dusty kimono and red, panting face.  
  
"Tae, Tsubame..(pant, pant)....has Kenshin...(pant)...been here?"  
  
"No, we haven't seen Kenshin around here lately," Tae offers. "Sano HAS been here, as usual, and he hasn't paid his bill again.."  
  
"You can try the bamboo grove just outside the city.." Tsubame adds.  
  
"...but I suggest that you look all over the city first," Tae concludes. "How about some lunch before you go?"  
  
Kaoru mumbles a few words of refusal and thanks, then runs off again. She stops at virtually every store and house on the route to the Oguni clinic, asking about a short man with red hair and a sword to one side. Every single person she meets shakes his head. They have not seen the redhead.  
  
At the Oguni clinic, about an hour later, Megumi meets her at the door. "The rooster head's been here, and, no, Ken-san hasn't been here. Sano just finished asking about him. Both of them are gone."  
  
A few tears start falling from Kaoru's face. She brushes them aside. She must be brave especially in front of Megumi. But WHERE could Kenshin be? No, no, he couldn't have....left again...this time without telling her!  
  
"What's on your mind, raccoon?" Megumi asks. "You look like you're about to faint!"  
  
"I, um, we, um, HAVE to find Kenshin! Before it's too late!" Kaoru dramatically exclaims.  
  
"Daijobu desu yo, Kaoru! Kenshin promised not to leave again without telling us. He'll be back by sundown, I assure you!" Megumi tries to console the teary-eyed kendo master.  
  
"But...but..what if he suddenly changes his mind and just..... leaves..us?"  
  
"Look, Kaoru. I'll send word to the Kamiya dojo when we hear anything from or about Ken-san any time today. Fair enough?"  
  
"It's OK, I guess," Kaoru sniffs. "I'll go look elsewhere."  
  
At the corner of the street from the Oguni clinic she runs into Sanosuke and Yahiko.  
  
"Oi, jo-chan!" Sano greets the flustered Kaoru. "Have you had lunch?"  
  
"How could I possibly eat, when Kenshin's not home, and he hasn't told anyone where he'll be, and he's not anywhere I've looked!" Kaoru declaims.  
  
"Slow down, slow down, Kaoru!" Yahiko pipes in. "I was kidding this morning! Kenshin did tell me he was going to the market to buy some stuff. It's just that..."  
  
"It's just that, what, Yahiko?"  
  
"Well, you see, that was this morning, and, well, um...he hasn't come back yet," Yahiko finishes sadly.  
  
"Oh, no...we have to keep looking. have to find him.he can't have gone...far..." ----suddenly Kaoru feels the street spin under her, then Yahiko and Sano blur in front of her eyes.  
  
When she comes to, she finds herself in bed at the Oguni clinic, with Megumi peering over her.  
  
"Good, she's finally awake," she tells the anxious young men beside her. She sternly faces Kaoru. "What is this business of starving yourself for Ken-san?"  
  
Kaoru was still in a daze from the faint. "Ken...san...where is he, Megumi?"  
  
"We still don't know, jo-chan," Sanosuke can only tell her, "and we've been all over town already! I've asked at police headquarters. Even the red- light district! Every single person who remotely knows Kenshin, hasn't seen him!"  
  
"You are quite contagious about your worrying, you know, Kaoru," Yahiko sadly adds. "We've been to the dojo twice, and Kenshin hasn't come back yet. Maybe I WAS right....it was a bad joke, sorry Kaoru----Kaoru! KAORU!!"  
  
But she has fainted again.  
  
When Kaoru gained enough strength and nourishment to walk home, it was already 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and still no sign of Kenshin was found. They had asked every single shop owner and food stall keeper in the market. No one could identify the popular little redhead being in the market that day. Kaoru was beginning to be seriously worried. She already had plans to wire Misao in Kyoto, with instructions to wire back with any news of Kenshin when they get it.  
  
"Come on, jo-chan! Don't worry too much," Sanosuke pats her on the head. "It's not like it's the first time Kenshin has done this."  
  
"Yes, it is," Kaoru sorrowfully replies. "Those times from before, I always remember him saying 'I'll be back tonight, don't worry about me, Kaoru- dono' or something like 'I have to settle this, Kaoru-dono, but when I do I'll come back.' Or he tells someone where he's going, and what time he estimates he will be back. This time, he didn't even say goodbye to anyone...."  
  
Sanosuke only lowers his head and guides her into the dojo. Once inside, she frees herself from Sano's arm and makes her way to the back of the house. "It seems like I'll be cooking for only the three of us tonight."  
  
"It's not like we have a choice..." Yahiko shrugs.  
  
Once away from Sano's and Yahiko's sight, she leans on the dojo's leafy tree and begins to weep softly.  
  
Now I understand how Megumi felt that fateful morning, that day he first left, Kaoru thought to herself. What right have I to complain now? I'm a lousy cook. And I'm only his second fiddle. Maybe I'm just not the type of woman for him, he who has had such a hard life. Who am I to stop him, my rurouni?  
  
Kaoru sits herself at the foot of the tree and continues to cry for a few more minutes. She stares at the setting sun, gradually, majestically displaying her beautiful shades....of red...  
  
She stares at the leaves of the beautiful old tree above her, softly rustling in the evening breeze. I remember, she thought, that Kenshin liked this tree. So much that he hated to prune it, or let Sano do it. Now it would constantly remind her of him...  
  
But wait a minute.  
  
What would an old sheet do on top of a tree?  
  
Kaoru suddenly wondered, seeing some white cloth fluttering on some low branches. She shrugged her shoulders. Maybe it got blown away by the strong summer wind this afternoon, and it landed in the tree. Well, it didn't matter to her. That Kenshin was missing was indeed a serious matter, but chores had to be done all the same, and the house still had to be kept in order. She had to get that old sheet back in the house, of course.  
  
She could just manage to reach one end of the sheet by tiptoeing and extending her arms for it. She started to pull at the old cloth, but it seemed stuck. She tugged a little more, and still it would not budge. She refused to yell for Yahiko or Sano; they would see the tears that dried on her face. This was a simple chore, and she could do it herself without anyone helping.  
  
Kaoru finally took a deep breath, and quickly yanked the sheet with all her might.  
  
AAAAAAAAGH!  
  
The sheet came screaming down with a crash.  
  
Kaoru jumped back in shock and let out a shout! "YAHIKO!!! The old sheet is alive!! YAHIKO!!"  
  
She started to slowly back away from the tree and from the old white cloth, glancing behind her for a rake or a broom to whack whatever spirit inhabited her old sheet.  
  
"Yahiko! Hurry!! The old sheet is alive!"  
  
Slowly she sees the cloth move about and rise from the ground by itself. It suddenly grows feet. Dead leaves rise even higher, surrounding a disheveled, hairy specter.  
  
"YAHIKO!! WHERE ARE YOU!! SANOSUKE!!"  
  
Step by step, the specter gradually approaches Kaoru from out of the shadows of the tree. By now a very terrified Kaoru had closed her eyes tightly and held out her arms in a cross in front of her face. The specter reaches out a pair of limbs and holds Kaoru firmly by the shoulders. Kaoru was about to let out another high-pitched scream, when the specter suddenly speaks.  
  
"Kaoru-dono, why did you pull me out of that tree, de gozaru ka?"  
  
In her surprise, Kaoru quickly opens her scared eyes. Standing in front of her was the object of their day's long and frantic search. He was quietly dusting off the leaves that got stuck in his red hair and surrounded his muddy pink gi.  
  
Sanosuke and Yahiko then came running in, panicked by Kaoru's screams for help. They could only stare at the redhead that caused so much trouble for the two of them that day.  
  
"K-K-Kenshin?! What the heck were you doing up on that tree?" Kaoru could only stammer out her confused words. "What was the point of not telling us you were just here?!"  
  
"A-anou, I thought you heard me this morning, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin began to explain while rubbing his painful behind. "I told you I was going to sell our carrots in the market."  
  
"Oh, no, I think I was still half asleep then. It was 5:30 in the morning, Kenshin, for crying out loud!"  
  
"Then I also told Yahiko I was going to the market," he continued.  
  
"Yes, yes, he told me---eventually," Kaoru stammered, then gave Yahiko an evil stare, "but he said he didn't see you all this afternoon! And nobody in town saw you!" To this Sanosuke nods, at a loss for words, for a change.  
  
"Oh, that! Turns out that the person who usually takes our carrots was sick, so I traded the carrots at his house just outside of town. His wife gave us a week's supply of tofu in exchange. It took longer than I expected to come back through the back side of town, gomen.."  
  
"That still doesn't explain why you were up on that tree!" Kaoru demanded in exasperation.  
  
The rurouni gives her a wide sheepish smile. "Oh, gomen, de gozaru. Sessha arrived only around 3 o'clock, and Yahiko wasn't home. I had finished the laundry yesterday, so there was no need to bother about it. I then put the tofu in the kitchen storage."  
  
"Well, make your point!"  
  
Kenshin nicked off a few more leaves off his hair. "Then I saw the wonderful breeze blowing through the leaves of our tree, so I chose one of the sturdier branches, and took a nap up in the tree. I suppose I was more exhausted from the trip than I thought," he concludes, looking despairingly at the starry sky now above them. "And then I was pulled down from the tree by Kaoru-dono, de gozaru."  
  
Kaoru also looks at the sky and sighs. She looks again at Kenshin and laughs loudly alone for a full two minutes, at herself and her undue concern. Sanosuke, Yahiko, and Kenshin only look at each other, each having large sweatdrops. She calms down, takes a deep breath, then announces.  
  
"Brush yourselves off, guys. We're going to the Akabeko for dinner. It's too late to cook now, and we've all had too much excitement today."  
  
The three gentlemen quietly walk away from her.  
  
"Oh, and Kenshin-----"  
  
"Hai, Kaoru-dono?"  
  
She pulls herself up to her full short height.  
  
"DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!"  
  
The rurouni only smiles.  
  
From that day on, Kaoru always remembered to look over at the dojo's tree every once in a while. Just to make sure her red robin didn't nest there again without her knowledge.  
  
And there was always that annoying daily question for Yahiko. Just in case.  
  
  
  
That's all, folks! ^_^x 


End file.
